I love stumbling upon photos of Indian ladies by the sea.
My mother matches her beauty mark
with her kumkuma, hidden inside glossy white borders.
Grasping their braids in the breeze, I see them
hitch up their saris and fold the silky waves
jauntily above their haunches.
Pleats get tucked away with modesty –
their knobby knees and chubby calves lighter
than the bellies above their petticoats.
The photos bleed into motion – flowers lain down
to the Arabian or the Kaveri,
aunties splashing and wishing
The spirit uplift wouldn’t slip away
like their saris slide back to earth,
gold-stitched edges dipping into polluted waters
Mirroring the glimmer of the sun
on its slow crawl to the horizon as, haltingly,
the photos quiet once more.
Archana Sridhar is an Indian-American poet in Toronto, Canada. Her chapbook “Renderings” is available through 845 Press, and her chapbook “Our Initials Were U.S.A.” is forthcoming with Ethel micro-press. Archana’s writing can be found at www.archanasridhar.com.
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